Based on outbreak data acquired from 1998 to 2008 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), known food-borne etiological agents were estimated to have caused 4,589 outbreaks, 9,638,301 cases, 57,462 hospitalizations, and 1,451 deaths per year in the United States (1). From these data, it was estimated that 482,199 cases (5.0%), 2,650 hospitalizations (0.03%), and 51 deaths (0.0005%) were attributable to bacteria consumed from beef. Of the 4,589 outbreaks, 103 (2.2%) and 3 (0.065%) were further attributable to beef-acquired Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 and non-O157 strains. Of the outbreaks caused by STEC O157 and non-O157 STEC strains for all food commodities combined, 103 of 186 (55.3%) and 3 of 6 (50%), respectively, were attributable to beef. On the basis of data acquired from the CDC from 2000 to 2008, of 9,388,075 cases of domestically acquired food-borne illness in the United States caused by 31 major pathogens, 63,153 (0.67%) were due to STEC O157 and 112,752 (1.20%) were due to non-O157 STEC infection (2). In the same study, of 35,796 hospitalizations, 2,138 (5.97%) were due to STEC O157 and 271 (0.76%) were due to non-O157 STEC; of 861 deaths, 20 (2.32%) were due to STEC O157 and 0 were due to non-O157 STEC infection.

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